Next on the Reading List

 A couple days ago I wrote about the books that I read on my last trip and what I am reading now.  I was in need of some books, so a couple weeks ago I went to a nearby bookstore.  I came home with a pile of reading material that should last me for a while.  The books are all works of historical fiction, my favorite type of novel.

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors, and I found a book of hers which I had not read.  "A Long Petal of the Sea" deals with two refugees from the Spanish Civil War who sail to a new life in Chile.

"The Rising Sun" by Douglas Galbraith is based on a little-known episode from history.  In 1698 Scotland, seeking to compete with England as a colonial power, sent an expedition to establish a settlement on the Darien Gap in what is now Panama.

"The Power and the Glory", written in 1940 by Graham Greene, is considered a classic of 20th century British literature.  It is set against the backdrop of the Cristero Wars of the late 1920s when the Mexican government sought to suppress the Catholic Church.

On my last trip I read Kristen Hannah's "The Four Winds", a novel dealing with the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.  I found another book that she wrote.  This one, "The Nightengale", takes place during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.

"Portrait of an Unknown Woman" by Vanora Bennett takes place during the religious upheaval of the reign of King Henry VIII.

"The Fool's Tale" by Nicole Galland is set in medieval Wales.

So which book will I be reading on my flight to Mexico next week?

 I selected "The Princes of Ireland" by Edward Rutherford.  Rutherford writes historical novels which span centuries of history in one particular place.  His works are similar in that respect to the books of James Michener.  I have read several of his novels... "Sarum", set in the author's hometown of Salisbury, England; "Paris"; "The Forest", set in the New Forest of southern England; and "Russka", set in Russia.  "The Princes of Ireland" begins in the year A.D. 430 and concludes in 1533.  This big, thick novel of over 700 pages should keep me occupied while waiting in airports and on my flights.